Gay Film Fest Loses Out on Four Films : Screen: Director of the annual Gay & Lesbian Film/Video Festival is angry at barriers that are preventing works from being shown.

LOS ANGELES —  When “Basic Instinct” was filming in San Francisco last spring, it became a rallying point for some gay and lesbian activists who are angered about stereotypes and violence on the screen.

Now, Larry Horne, the director of the annual Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film/Video Festival, is angered about the images that will be staying off the screen.

In particular, those from four films that will be absent from the ninth annual festival that opens Thursday night at the Directors Guild theater in Hollywood. “There are some truly wonderful films that would appeal to the festival’s audience,” he said.

But in at least four cases involving movies with gay themes, the producers and distributors of those films have nixed any such appearance at the gay festival.

“Why are they so skittish about this?” Horne asked during an interview the other day. “It’s because they don’t want their films associated with the gay festival in the Los Angeles market.”

All this is frustrating and ironic to Horne, who has seen similar barriers in his eight previous years of producing the festival.

“It was gay festivals that got some of these filmmakers started,” he said, citing the example of “Paris Is Burning,” a documentary about “voguing” and the drag scene in Harlem.

“Here is a film that made its mark by being seen at gay festivals in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco last year,” Horne said. “I was stunned when they told me last week they wouldn’t allow us to show it in an encore showing.”

But Jonathan Marder, a spokesman for “Paris” said, “The film has already done the festival circuit. Now it’s time to move on.”

Marder said the film has had a successful run in Manhattan and producers are close to obtaining a distribution deal. “The film is a terrific blow to homophobia,” he said. “But we have another agenda for getting it seen by a wider audience now.”

Perhaps the highest profile of the films blocked from the gay festival is “My Own Private Idaho,” from the openly gay director of “Drugstore Cowboy,” Gus Van Sant. “Idaho” stars Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix as two male hustlers in Portland who travel to Idaho. In the process, one falls in love with the other. The film, to be distributed by New Line Cinema, is not scheduled to open in theaters until October.

“New Line wants the film to be introduced at the prestigious New York or Venice festivals, and a debut earlier would preclude that, according to the rules of those festivals,” said “Idaho” publicist Mickey Cottrell.

“The distributor doesn’t want the film positioned as a gay film,” Cottrell said. “Then many people would be frightened away. It’s better to have the critics say how wonderful it is in dealing with gay characters.”

But Horne was clearly disappointed. “Showing ‘My Own Private Idaho’ was something I’d like to have done because of Van Sant. Once we had shown his ‘Mala Noche’ at (an earlier) festival, he got a big career boost.

“ ‘Private Idaho’ is a gay film and they’re not looking at the audience that first embraced Gus. . . . I don’t know what kind of delusions they’re working under,” Horne said.

“It’s not strictly a portrait of gay life,” Cottrell said, when informed of Horne’s position. “Our object is to have this film be a success and have as many people see this film as possible. . . . Some gay activists may feel that this film will be a negative image because it deals with street hustlers.”

In another instance, Horne saw “Young Soul Rebels,” a new film from director Isaac Julien, (“Looking for Langston”) at last February’s Berlin International Film Festival and wanted to schedule it here. “Rebels” is a mystery about the murder of two black deejays, one gay and the other straight.

“Julien expressed interest and Miramax Pictures later contacted us about doing some sort of test screening. Then later, they abruptly changed their minds,” Horne said.

“This is jerking us around. . . . This is the audience for the film,” said a frustrated Horne, who said he couldn’t help but wonder why the company was acting to deny the homosexual audience.

But Mark Lipsky, the executive vice president of Miramax’s Prestige Films division, said the reason is a competing festival. The company wants to save “Young Soul Rebels” for the Telluride Film Festival--”and Telluride won’t take it if it’s been seen around,” Lipsky said.

Lipsky rejected any suggestion of homophobia on the part of Miramax. “It’s clearly not true. I’m offended by that. This company has been intimately a part of ‘Madonna: Truth or Dare’ . . . Sometimes film festivals can’t fathom when sometimes a distributor doesn’t give them a film.”

Horne also sought director Percy Adlon’s newest film, “Salmon Berries,” with k.d. lang as a young woman who becomes involved with Rosel Zech.

But Horne was told by an individual connected to that movie that the film would be “pigeon-holed” if it screened at a gay festival.

Not so, said associate producer Beverly Graff: The film is entered in Montreal and cannot be seen elsewhere until after September.

“Everyone makes assumptions that it is a lesbian picture,” she said. “It’s about a young person who is completely undefined and her search for herself. She meets another woman and they get to be friends. None of us ever tagged it as a lesbian story. Our response is, why should it be?”

“Why shouldn’t it be?” is Horne’s response.

All hasn’t been frustration for Horne, however. He has lined up 135 feature-length and short subject films from 12 nations for the 10-day run at the Directors Guild of America, on Sunset Boulevard.

“Evenings,” a coming of age, sexual identity story from Holland, will open the event.